So, what do you think of the Fair Tax? I think it’s a good idea.

10 comments April 14th, 2009

Not being an ideologue of either left or right, I have the freedom to look for good ideas wherever they might be. Because the income tax code has become so complicated and is used by congressmen, senators and presidents to reward and punish people depending on the kind of economic activity they engage in, I’ve been looking into a proposal known as the Fair Tax.

You can read all you want about the fair tax at  fairtax.org

Here it is in a nutshell: The fair tax is a national sales tax of 23 percent payable at the cash register. No, it’s not regressive, because low income people would get monthly “prebate” checks from Uncle Sam, up to about $28,000 a year.

The fair tax would eliminate all other federal taxes, including payroll, corporate and capital gains taxes. It would result in much more corporate investment in the U.S. economy, particularly from foreign companies. The U.S. currently has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, which encourages American businesses to go offshore and discourages foreign companies from coming here.

It would also get rid of the legions of tax accountants, tax lawyers and garden variety tax preparers who would be free to engage in productive activity. It would end the IRS.

This idea comes from the right, and Mike Huckabee is one of its biggest promoters, but the way I see it, the fair tax is ideologically neutral. It’s a more efficient way of collecting tax money, and there’d be no tax code for the politicians to manipulate according to which special interest gives them the most money.

This idea could  spread to state and local governments, so that eventually, all taxes are collected at the point of sales of goods and services. Poor people get prebates, and there’s more money freed up for businesses to create jobs, leading to a more productive economy.

Go to the website, read it, and send me your thoughts.

Ike’s speech seeking peace in Korea wouldn’t please Charles Krauthammer

Add comment April 14th, 2009

I read neo-con Charles Krauthammer’s column in today’s Register Star and was determined to write a rebuttal. These northern Virginia warriors, none of whom ever lifted a rifle in combat, from Gingrich, Hannity and Limbaugh to Rove, Cheney and Bolton, think Obama is a wimp because he went to Europe, talked frankly about America’s arrogance in the Bush years, and advocated a world without weapons of mass destruction.

Turns out I don’t have to write a rebuttal. My favorite president, IKE, already did, in a speech to newspaper editors in March 1953, after he determined to end the Korean war with a truce, not an all-out invasion of the north.

Here’s Ike’s speech, courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission:

120,000 Americans have killed one another with guns since Sept. 11, 2001, says columnist

6 comments April 14th, 2009

This Bob Herbert column in The New York Times points out a sobering statistic: Since Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked New York City and Washington, D.C., 120,000 Americans have killed one another using guns.

I’ve never been an advocate of stricter gun control, although I do predict that eventually a majority of Americans will demand draconian gun control laws to curb the growing gun violence. Please don’t send me posts about the Second Amendment. I know what it says and I believe, as does the Supreme Court, that  it  provides for the individual’s right to keep and bear arms.

However, I also don’t think the Framers had any idea that “average joes” would be blowing off their family members’ heads and killing cops by the threes and fours.

I’ll leave you with this quote. I don’t know its origin, but I often heard Paul Harvey use it after reporting on some deranged lunatic shooting up a school, office or household:  “Self government requires self control.”